The Achilles Heel of Firm Strategy: Resource Weaknesses and Distinctive Inadequacies

Two separately developed views within the strategic management literature elucidate the source of a firm's competitive advantage based on the internal attributes of the firm: the resource-based view (Wernerfelt, 1984) and the distinctive competence view (Selznick, 1957). As developed in the literature, however, both views neglect important dimensions which inhibit the achievement of competitive advantage. These dimensions are resource weaknesses and distinctive inadequacies. Accounting for weaknesses and inadequacies exposes important choice-sets confronting management in making resource investments, and of time-related dimensions in developing sustainable advantage. Considering the effects of weaknesses and inadequacies provides insight on the limits to firm growth and to sustainability of competitive advantage. Theory on developing competitive advantage may lack explanatory and predictive power if it excludes these perspectives, which if included may also improve prescription for practitioners.

[1]  Danny Miller,et al.  Momentum and Revolution in Organizational Adaptation , 1980 .

[2]  Donald A. Schön,et al.  Organizational Learning: A Theory Of Action Perspective , 1978 .

[3]  Cynthia A. Montgomery,et al.  An Exploration of Common Ground: Integrating Evolutionary and Strategic Theories of the Firm , 1995 .

[4]  K. Eisenhardt.  Building theories from case study research , 1989, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[5]  Karel Cool,et al.  Asset stock accumulation and sustainability of competitive advantage , 1989 .

[6]  P. Schoemaker,et al.  Strategic assets and organizational rent , 1993 .

[7]  R. S. Capers,et al.  Hubble error: Time, money and millionths of an inch , 1993 .

[8]  F. Knight.  The economic nature of the firm: From Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit , 2009 .

[9]  G. Meyer,et al.  An upper Echelons perspective on transformational leadership problems in high technology firms , 1990 .

[10]  Robert E. Hoskisson,et al.  Synergies and Post-Acquisition Performance: Differences versus Similarities in Resource Allocations , 1991 .

[11]  J. Barney.  Strategic Factor Markets: Expectations, Luck, and Business Strategy , 1986 .

[12]  Rosabeth Moss Kanter,et al.  Why good people do bad things: A retrospective on the Hubble fiasco , 1993 .

[13]  A. V. D. Ven,et al.  Explaining Development and Change in Organizations , 1995 .

[14]  R. Coff.  Human Assets and Management Dilemmas: Coping With Hazards On the Road to Resource-Based Theory , 1997 .

[15]  R. Reed,et al.  Causal Ambiguity, Barriers to Imitation, and Sustainable Competitive Advantage , 1990 .

[16]  B. Hedberg.  How Organizations Learn and Unlearn , 1981 .

[17]  D. Teece,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1997 .

[18]  R. Rumelt,et al.  Inertia and Transformation , 1995 .

[19]  K. Cameron,et al.  Organizational paradox and transformation. , 1988 .

[20]  M. Shubik,et al.  A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. , 1964 .

[21]  M. Tushman,et al.  Organizational Evolution: A Metamorphosis Model of Convergence and Reorientation , 1985 .

[22]  J. Barney.  Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage , 1991 .

[23]  M. Hitt,et al.  Corporate distinctive competence, strategy, industry and performance , 1985 .

[24]  B. Kogut,et al.  Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the Replication of Technology , 1992 .

[25]  M. Porter,et al.  From Entry Barriers to Mobility Barriers: Conjectural Decisions and Contrived Deterrence to New Competition , 1977 .

[26]  Nandini Rajagopalan,et al.  TOWARD A THEORY OF STRATEGIC CHANGE: A MULTI-LENS PERSPECTIVE AND INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK , 1997 .

[27]  Margaret A. Peteraf.  The cornerstones of competitive advantage: A resource‐based view , 1993 .

[28]  S. Ghoshal,et al.  Markets, Firms, and the Process of Economic Development , 1999 .

[29]  B. Wernerfelt,et al.  A Resource-Based View of the Firm , 1984 .

[30]  K. Lewin.  Frontiers in Group Dynamics , 1947 .

[31]  T. Kuhn,et al.  The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. , 1964 .

[32]  G Page Jan.  COMMUNICATED KNOWLEDGE AS A LEARNING FOUNDATION , 1999 .

[33]  Austen Albu.  Organisation of Industry , 2021, Nature.

[34]  J. Dutton.  Understanding strategic agenda building and its implications for managing change , 1986 .

[35]  Howard Thomas,et al.  STRATEGIC RENEWAL AND THE INTERACTION OF CUMULATIVE STRESS AND INERTIA , 1992 .

[36]  E. H. Bowman,et al.  Strategy through the Option Lens: An Integrated View of Resource Investments and the Incremental-Choice Process , 1993 .

[37]  Murray B. Low,et al.  Entrepreneurship: Past Research and Future Challenges , 1988 .

[38]  G. Meyer,et al.  To agree or not to agree? consensus and performance in new ventures , 1998 .

[39]  Marshall W. Meyer,et al.  Permanently Failing Organizations. , 1991 .

[40]  M. D. Ryall.  When Competencies are Not Core: Self-Confirming Theories and the Destruction of Firm Value , 1998 .

[41]  G. Hendrikse.  Fundamental Issues in Strategy , 1995 .

[42]  Ari Ginsberg,et al.  Measuring and modelling changes in strategy: Theoretical foundations and empirical directions , 1988 .

[43]  S. Winter,et al.  An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change.by Richard R. Nelson; Sidney G. Winter , 1987 .

[44]  A. Stinchcombe.  Information and Organizations , 2019 .

[45]  C. C. Snow,et al.  Strategy, Distinctive Competence, and Organizational Performance. , 1980 .

[46]  Constance E. Helfat,et al.  Managerial Resources and Rents , 1991 .

[47]  Cynthia A. Montgomery,et al.  Diversification, Ricardian rents, and Tobin's q , 1988 .

[48]  G. Hamel.  Competition for competence and interpartner learning within international strategic alliances , 1991 .

[49]  C. Prahalad,et al.  The Core Competence of the Corporation , 1990 .

[50]  Sevgin Eroğlu,et al.  Book Review: The Knowledge Link: How Firms Compete through Strategic Alliances , 1993 .